A lack of warning, poor mobile phone reception and little apparent co-ordination between emergency services have been among the grievances aired at the first community consultation into the Black Saturday bushfires.
About 60 people filled a function room at the Savoy Club in Myrtleford yesterday to take part in round-table discussions, which were closed to the media.
Dozens of homes around Myrtleford were destroyed in the fires, which burned through 31,000 hectares of land, and killed locals John and Sue Wilson.
After the consultation ended, residents emerged to describe what had occurred behind closed doors.
Many said that talk had unfairly turned into a "CFA (Country Fire Authority) witch-hunt" after residents complained fire crews pulled out of affected areas too soon on Black Saturday.
"I'm wondering – how many of those people, the younger ones who are complaining, are actually volunteers?" Upper Gondwaring resident Rosemary Garoni said.
She and her husband, Sil, lost pasture when fire hit their horse farm and came within metres of their home, but they credit a CFA dozer with helping save their house.
The lack of mobile phone coverage in areas such as Mudgegonga appeared to be one of the biggest concerns, with residents saying another mobile phone tower was desperately needed to improve communication in emergencies.
Many also questioned why a widespread alert had not gone out to those in areas threatened by fire.
"There just didn't seem to be enough going on that should have been," Barwidgee Creek resident Vicki England said.
"Some people saw fire brigades some didn't, some got warnings some didn't.
"I think there could have been more preparation done to make it more co-ordinated."
But Ray and Lorraine McCarthy, who lost their house, sheds and many hectares of grazing pasture when the fire bore down on their Mudgegonga farm, said there was little that anyone could have done to prevent the weekend's events.
"We could have a beef with (the CFA) too, for not letting us know but what's the point? It's not going to bring our house back, it's not going to do anything else," Mrs McCarthy said.
The efficacy of the consultation process, which saw the crowd broken up into groups of eight to 10 people with overall discussion facilitated by a moderator, drew mixed reviews.
Participants were asked to consider four questions:
• What was the impact of the fires?
• What did and did not work to prepare them?
• What should be done to better prepare in the future?
• What would help assist the community to rebuild?
Rosemary Garoni said she thought people should have an opportunity to speak their minds. "It helps with the trauma," she said.
However, Lorraine McCarthy, who, with husband Ray and adult daughter Anissa, fled the fires as a tree crashed through their roof and sent flames shooting through their home, said the meeting had achieved little for her.
In his opening remarks chief commissioner Bernard Teague said the aim of the consultations was to help the commissioners know what areas to prioritise under their "extraordinarily wide" terms of reference.
A royal commission had been called, he said, to prevent further loss of life in the future on the scale of the February 7 fires.
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